A 15-year-old Icelandic girl has won the right to keep her first name, despite it being "unapproved" by the state. Why do some countries restrict baby names?

Parents-to-be often find it hard enough to find a name they both like, let alone one the state might also be in favour of.

Bjork Eidsdottir had no idea when, in naming her newborn girl Blaer 15 years ago, she was breaking the law.

In the eyes of the authorities Blaer, which means "light breeze", was a male name and therefore not approved. It meant that for her entire childhood, Blaer was known simply as "Girl" on official documents.

But Reykjavik District Court ruled on Thursday that it could indeed be a feminine name.

"Finally I'll have the name Blaer in my passport," she said after the ruling.

Several countries - such as Germany, Sweden, China and Japan - also restrict names. Why?

In the case of Iceland, it's about meeting certain rules of grammar and gender, and saving the child from possible embarrassment. Sometimes, although not in every case, officials also insist that it must be possible to write the name in Icelandic.

There is a list of 1,853 female names, and 1,712 male ones, and parents must pick from these lists or seek permission from a special committee.

Similar concerns about child welfare are present in Germany, where a Turkish couple were not allowed to call their baby Osama Bin Laden.

One couple named their baby Berlin after the city in which they met, prompting the registrar to mount an objection. He eventually relented after the family's lawyer pointed out that the courts had allowed the name London.

Gender confusion prevented a German boy being Matti, because the sex of the baby wouldn't be obvious. And you won't find any Germans named Merkel, Schroeder or Kohl, either, because surnames are banned as first names.

The name 4Real fell foul of authorities in New Zealand, because names cannot start with a number.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, prevent childhood embarrassment, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

We can almost all agree on the psychological damage of naming your kid "Adolf Hitler", but no-one seems to want to discuss the same in regards to the made-up names and pronunciations that proliferate nowadays.

My dad protected me from possible “childhood embarrassment” all by himself-he was on active duty when I was born, and wasn’t available for my naming. When he heard the name my mom had chosen (from a book she was reading), he simply told her that it was a stupid name and I was not to ever be called by it, end of discussion. He said I was to be called by the name I have today, and so I was-no approved list needed.

I never heard my birth name until I was about 4, and an aunt was discussing the incident with my mom-I’ve never used it.

Those are names of places and things, though-people have been naming kids after those forever, dumb or not. An old hippie chick of my acquaintance out here named all 5 of her kids after trees and flowering plants. A Brit friend named her kids after the state they were born in, and a country-Wyoming, Montana and India-and she pronounces it “Indjia”...

From wiki;
“Ima Hogg (July 10, 1882  August 19, 1975), known as “The First Lady of Texas”,[1] was an American philanthropist, patron and collector of the arts, and one of the most respected women in Texas during the 20th century”

I am as well. The U.S. has so many cultures/ethnicities in it. Good or bad.. does someone really advocate a government book of pre-approved names? I am not fond of the name “Hester” or “Gertrude”.. but parents have the right to name their daughter that name. Sometimes.. I think names are in the eyes of the beholder.

One of my cub’s friends named her girlchild “Aubergine”, because she heard the word on TV and liked it-when she was told it referred to eggplant in French, she didn’t seem to care, stuck the kid with the name anyway...

Many of the gender-neutral names seem to be last names used as first, like Sargant Shriver,Mackenzie Philips or Ashley Wilkes. Personally, I would use a last name as a middle name or else give the child a middle name that could be used as a gender specific first name, as in F. Scott Fitzgerald or G. Gordon Liddy.
There is also the problem of names drawn from pop culture. By the time the child is entering school, the program in question may be cancelled, or the movie relegated to the bargain bin. Or else, the child may grow up to be different than his namesake, say an asthmatic named Anankin.

42
posted on 02/04/2013 9:12:50 AM PST
by jmcenanly
("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)

Maybe the girl will shorten it to “Ginny” or “Amber”. That being said, I am probably a wee bit more sensitive to names than some freepers. Our youngest daughter was adopted from China. In Chinese, the last name is first. For orphans, they list all of that regions last names as we would our state. All of their first names would be like our cities. The following name would be something superficial like the Chinese word for moon, or the shape of the face. Thus, each orphan name corresponded to a number. So, Texas, Houston-Ann is 5244887424. Texas, Houston-Jill is 5224484666. The Chinese sort of liked/pushed/suggested we keep one of the Chinese names. Not us.. we named her a name that we liked and chose. Okay... so she has two Irish first names but they suit her far better than a number. I always saw naming a child with these eyes: if you carry them, deliver them and are responsible for them then you name then what you like.

and there is a vein in the black community that claims there is name discrimination because people hear a black sounding name in a phone interview and make assumptions.

Oh they're right about that, Jack! Any document I ever saw during the hiring process that had punctuation, obvious disregard for conventional spelling (plenty of literate whites do this because their baby is so special), was simply not a name (e.g. "Blanket" from an earlier post) or "made a statement" (it's mostly white hippies doing this), went straight into the trash pile.

49
posted on 02/04/2013 9:36:03 AM PST
by jiggyboy
(Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)

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